Academy Vision & Strategy Project
– Where to Go, How to Proceed –

What path will J.LEAGUE, J.LEAGUE clubs and their academies take to achieve “2030 Football Vision”?
“Academy Vision & Strategy Project” will indicates where the J.LEAGUE and its academies will go (vision) and how they will go (strategy) with Project DNA by 2030. For example, in order to create a world-leading J.LEAGUE academy, we need world-class players, leaders or staff, and that is the reason why we include Academy Workforce Development Project as one of the six projects to achieve this.

Also, J.LEAGUE aims for all academies to have a vision that respects the history and culture of the club and a strategy defining how to achieve the vision. A club’s vision is also necessary to show what makes the club unique, i.e. the club’s football philosophy. Ideally, within the football philosophy, the club’s history, traditions, heritage, culture, vision and direction of football are clearly expressed, and the direction of football is all in line from the first team to the academy.

Club management and club football leaders (in J.LEAGUE, we call them together senior leaders) know that the academy has a very important role and potential in achieving the club’s vision. This is because the academy is a place to create talents who can significantly increase and biring the return on investment.

The senior leader of the club plays a very important role in strongly connecting the academy with the club’s football philosophy, vision and its first team. “J.LEAGUE Leaders in Football Events” (JLiF) is a learning opportunity for such senior leaders, such as club executive committee members and sport/technical directors, to refine their experience and knowledge, and to connect clubs and academies.
J.LEAGUE is promoting a plan for senior leaders of clubs to deepen their learning within a relatively short period of time.

In February 2020, J.LEAGUE published a book as a guide to achieving its football vision for 2030. It is called “”Project DNA – to the FUTURE””. The book is mainly aimed at academy directors of J.LEAGUE’s clubs. In order to achieve the vision, a strong leadership and collaboration (cooperation) with the entire Japanese football community are needed. This book provides plans and ideas for this through introducing of for each of the six project of Project DNA.

• Project DNA – to the FUTURE_2020